'Jack Marshals

As warmachine is a game that is ostensibly about powerful giant robots, it's kind of a pain that warcasters have such a limited pool of focus to power their mechanical death engines. Warjacks can (with some exceptions) get three focus at most each turn. Even high-focus 'casters (7-9 focus) can only super-power three 'jacks per turn. Even if they do, they aren't casting spells or boosting their own attacks.

Granted, three focus on a 'jack is a lot. It means that a melee-oriented machine can buy 3 extra attacks, or boost accuracy and/or damage on two attacks. Since warjacks need to spend focus to charge, often a "fully loaded" warjack will charge into combat by spending one focus, then boost it's first attack to make sure it hits (depending on it's chances). Often it uses the last focus for an additional attack with the main weapon again.

Ranged warjacks use focus differently. Guns have a rate-of-fire stat, which determines how many shots they can take each turn. So a Hunter light warjack, for instance, with it's ROF 1 Long Arm gun, is only firing one shot per turn. The Hunter has an axe as well, so it can technically mix it up Kung Fu style, but the gun is often better than melee options for ranged 'jacks. Considering this, the Hunter is operating at peak ranged power with only two focus, one to boost the attack roll and one to boost damage. Maybe less if the intended target has a low defense or armor stat and both rolls don't need to be boosted.

Other guns are different. The Thunderhead character heavy warjack has a ROF 3 Electro Coil weapon. That baby can fire three times per turn, so the T-Head likes having a lot of focus for buying attacks.

One way to get "extra focus" in an army is to use 'Jack Marshals. JMs are troopers or solos that can run a warjack outside of the 'casters main battlegroup. This has advantages and disadvantages.

Pros:

1) JMed 'jacks gain a focus-like ability once per turn. They can run, or charge, or gain an additional attack, or boost a single roll (either attack or damage but not both).

2) JMed warjacks can operate independently of the main battlegroup ('jacks must be in the warcaster's control area to be allocated focus from the 'caster)

Cons:

1) JMed warjacks can't get a full load of three focus. Since a heavy can often one-turn another heavy (kill it in a single turn before it can retaliate) when it has a full load of focus this is a huge problem.

2) Jack Marshals can be slain, thereby denying the 'jack any support, and a (pseudo-) focusless 'jack isn't coming close to its full potential. Most 'jacks need a focus or two to even operate at decent efficiency.

3) JMed warjacks aren't part of the warcaster's battlegroup, so any battlegroup-wide spells or effects won't affect JMed 'jacks. Some 'casters have awesome battlegroup spells and Marshaled 'jacks get none of that love.

So there's a bit of a trade-off.

The general consensus seems to be that JMing warjacks isn't worth it. This is due to several factors. A big one is that the game favors melee attacks significantly. It's fairly easy to rack up cover and shooting into melee bonuses and push defense up to a level that makes shooting difficult. Further, a ranged warjack often doesn't have a large rate of fire, so the biggest ranged weapons in the arsenal can most often be only fired once per turn. Conversely, a 'jack can buy as many melee strikes as it has focus, and many of the penalties to attack that cover and concealment grant against ranged attacks are meaningless to melee attacks.

Of course, getting there to beat face can be a problem. Warjacks (heavies especially) are pretty slow.

Still, the armies inevitably engage, and then melee is the dominant mode. Even 'jacks with good guns will have trouble counterstriking a heavy in their face, as they can't fire while engaged, can't disengage without getting a free strike in the face, and even if everything works out chances are the ROF 1 gun isn't going to put that heavy down in a single shot.

Similarly, a JMed melee jack is only going to get one extra attack in the same scenario, while 2 or 3 extra attacks (such as an engaged 'jack fully loaded with focus might have) are usually the right amount to end the argument. JMed warjacks simply can't finish the deal some of the time.

Further, a melee 'jack which is JMed needs to be near its marshal to get a JM bonus anyway. Precisely within the command stat of the Marshal in inches. Some marshals have a 10 command, and some have a 7. So the marshal needs to be close enough to his 'jack to be effective, and as he's essentially making a deadly combatant more deadly savvy opponents will murder 'jack marshals as early as possible. Let's take a look at a few 'jack marshals and compare them.

Captain Arlan Strangeways:

Arlan is a cool dude. He's so cool he can calmly smoke a pipe and wield a giant comedy wrench in a wartorn hellscape.




Arlan's a solo, meaning he can operate independently of his army. He's got a lot to offer faction warjacks, including the 'jack marshal ability. He can also forfeit his attack action to give a focus to a Cygnar 'jack, to give a 'jack evasion so that it can't be hit by free strikes, or he can repair a damaged warjack.

That's awesome. He's a great dude to have around. Thing is, he does all this whether he's the JM to the target 'jack or not. If he's also JMing a 'jack he can effectively give it two focus: one from his action and one pseudo focus from the JM bonus. He's so useful opponents will seek him out and ruin him as early as they can, so any JMed 'jacks will go autonomous if he dies (not part of 'caster battlegroup but not JMed).

And when he dies his JMed jack loses a lot of efficiency. Without focus or the JM pseudo focus 'jacks can't run or charge, rendering their range of threat limited. I've already gone over what a lack of attacks does for warjack efficiency.

So solo Jack Marshals are asking for it.

The range on his stuff is pretty short, so if he's supporting or marshaling a melee 'jack he's in the thick of the action. A smart opponent will take offense at his nonchalant pipe smoking and end his life.

Rutger Shaw:


I'll write more extensively on Shaw at a later time. For now, I want to mention that he's a solo mercenary 'jack marshal. This is cool because merc' JMs can only control merc' 'jacks, which actually means that using him allows me to take death machines not normally allowed. Alas, they aren't in my 'caster's battlegroup.

Shaw is a melee oriented 'jack marshal. He has a special "Drive" technique which allows him to make a command check and give his JMed jack a reroll on a missed attack roll (ranged or melee). He also has the flank ability with his 'jacks, so if he's running into close combat himself with a target engaging his 'jack(s) he gets some hefty combat bonuses.

He's also Tough. The Tough ability allows a model to roll a d6 when it would die, and on a 5 or 6 it doesn't. That helps a bit.

Rutger's still a target, and since he's in the thick of combat if he's using all his a abilities he's gonna get slapped as well. Maybe he'll make his Tough check.

The Dude (Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer):

So named because if his resemblance to a pop culture icon from the 90s.



The Dude is actually a unit attachment, an officer who must be taken with a unit of Arcane Tempest Gun Mages. This would be a shame if ATGMs weren't awesome, but they are so good on that. The Dude is interesting in that he's actually a JM who is better suited to marshal ranged warjacks. He has a special Rune Shot ability that allows a 'jack marshaled to him to fire one of the special ATGM spell-bullets every time it makes a normal attack. So a gun with a ROF 2, like the Charger's Dual Cannon, can fire two special bullets per round.

Further, since the Dude is a ranged JM, he's farther away from the action and his survivability goes up. On top of all that, when a unit attachment who is a JM is slain, his JM status actually passes on to the unit leader. So even if The Dude is killed that Charger is getting the JM bonus until the unit is all dead. Since The Dude grants Rune Shot, after he's gone that special is not available, but still having the JM bonus through the whole unit is nice.

Out of all these marshals I've used The Dude the most. He actually can add 4 inches of range to a ranged warjack's shot with the special Snipe Rune Shot, and it costs the 'caster nothing to do it. The other bullets become more useful as the enemy approaches.

I'll be testing out Shaw in a few armies and we'll see how it goes. Perhaps it's not as useful as I think, but in a faction strapped for focus I think JMs might be the way to go.

-Merlin out

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